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For years, Google has been the primary gateway to getting found online. If businesses wanted to be discovered by more potential customers, making sure they ranked high in the Google search results was the main (and often only) priority.
This process of improving your ranking on Google is known as search engine optimization (SEO), and it’s still an important pillar of online marketing. However, Google isn’t the only platform that your customers are turning to for answers these days.
In 2026, 37% of consumers start their searches with AI tools instead of search engines like Google. Rather than doing a Google search for things like “best plumbers in Springfield, MO” or “tree removal services near me”, more and more people are asking ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI tools for the answers to these questions.
What this means for businesses is that there’s now a brand new way of reaching potential customers, and SEO is no longer the be-all end-all of getting found online. A business can have exceptional SEO and rank at the top of the results for all relevant Google searches, but if AI isn’t mentioning them when users ask for recommendations, they’ll still be invisible to a large segment of potential customers. And that segment of customers who rely on AI instead of Google is getting larger every day.
The good news is that there is a way to increase the chances of AI recommending your business. The even better news is that not many of your competitors are likely to even know about it yet. It’s called answer engine optimization (AEO), and in this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know to get started optimizing for AI search.
Why Are Consumers Using AI Instead of Google?
Ten years ago, the idea that any technology could come along and replace Google as the king of online search was virtually unthinkable. Google’s moat around online search was so wide that the term “Google it” became synonymous with looking something up on the internet.
But AI tools aren’t just another search engine. They’re conversational. They’re personalized. They allow users to ask hyper-specific questions, then provide answers that are personally tailored to them.
Think about someone who is planning to remodel their bathroom, for example. On Google, they can look up images for inspiration, research how to choose a remodeler, and find remodelers in their area.
AI, meanwhile, allows for a much more personalized experience. The customer can upload pictures of their bathroom and have the AI generate images of what it would look like with different remodels. They can tell the AI what their budget is, what their priorities and preferences are, what they’d like the finished project to look like, and so on. The whole research process goes from looking up information online to something that feels like having a conversation with a super knowledgeable friend. And at the end of that conversation, when it comes time to actually choose a remodeling company, whoever the AI recommends is going to carry a lot of weight.
That’s the reason why so many people are now turning to tools like ChatGPT for the answers they used to search Google for. It’s also why optimizing for AI search is a goldmine of opportunity for businesses looking to grow their online reach.
How to Get AI to Recommend Your Business
This where answer engine optimization comes into play. AEO is the process of making your business easier for AI tools to understand, trust, and recommend when users ask relevant questions.
That sounds simple enough, but there’s an important difference between how Google traditionally ranks websites and how AI tools decide which businesses to recommend.
Google primarily looks at things like your website content, backlinks, technical performance, local relevance, and dozens of other ranking factors to decide where your website should appear in search results. Optimizing for these ranking factors is what SEO is all about.
But AI tools are trying to do something slightly different. They’re not just trying to find the most relevant web page. They’re trying to put together the best possible answer to the user’s question.
That means they need to understand who your business is, what you do, where you operate, what you’re good at, and whether there’s enough trustworthy information online to confidently include you in that answer.
The more clear, consistent, and authoritative information that exists about your business online, the better chance AI has of understanding where you fit. Making sure this information exists and is easy for AI to find and understand is the foundation of AEO.
What AEO Looks Like in Practice
The process of optimizing for AI is different than what SEO requires. Here’s what it requires and what AEO looks like in practice:
AEO Starts With Your Website…But it Doesn’t End There
Your business’s website is one of the most important pieces of the AEO puzzle. It’s the first place AI tools look to learn more about your business, and if it doesn’t clearly explain what you do, then they aren’t going to have a lot to work with.
This is one of the biggest overlaps between SEO and AEO. Helpful, detailed, well-organized content tends to benefit both. However, unlike SEO, your website is not the end of the story when it comes to optimizing for AI search.
In addition to your website, AI systems can also look at what the rest of the internet says about your business. That can include review platforms, directories, news articles, social media profiles, industry websites, local organizations, Reddit discussions, and more.
Imagine your website claims that you are one of the leading companies in your industry, but there’s hardly any mention of you anywhere else online. In this case, AI isn’t going to have a lot of reason to trust that claim. But if your company has hundreds of reviews, is listed in relevant directories, and is talked about on social media, there’s a much larger body of information confirming who you are and what you do.
Think of AEO like building an online footprint for your business, one that includes your website but also goes beyond it. The more information about your business that there is on the internet, the better the chances of AI noticing and recommending you.
Answer the Questions Your Customers Are Actually Asking
One of the most effective ways to improve your AEO is to create content around real customer questions.
Think about the questions that a customer is likely to ask AI when they are searching for a business like yours. For a roofing company, this might be questions like “how much does a new roof cost?” or “what roofing material lasts the longest?” For a financial advisor, it could be questions like “what does a financial advisor do?” or “how much money do I need before hiring a financial advisor?” These are the kind of questions that people are increasingly asking AI instead of searching on Google. If your website thoroughly answers them, it means there will be more opportunities for you to be mentioned in those conversations.
Consistency is Key
Your business information needs to be consistent everywhere that it appears online if you want AI to view it as reputable. If your website, Google Business Profile, and social media profiles all list different services, locations, or contact information, AI won’t know which information to trust.
The key is to build a clear online identity for your business with consistent information that is easy for AI to cross-check and verify.
Why Now is the Perfect Time to Start Thinking About AEO
The biggest reason why now is the ideal time to start thinking about AEO is because most of your competitors aren’t.
SEO has been a pillar of digital marketing for decades, and most established businesses are already competing aggressively for the top positions on Google. AEO, however, is much newer, and many businesses still have no strategy for AI search in place.
In other words, most marketers are behind the curve when it comes to keeping pace with how AI is impacting consumer habits. This creates a lot of opportunity for businesses that jump on the AEO train early, before competition becomes more intense.
That window won’t stay open forever, though. AI isn’t exactly a well-kept secret, and more and more businesses are starting to recognize the opportunities it presents.
At Alpha Social Media, AEO is one of the trends we are most excited about helping our clients capitalize on. If you would like to start taking advantage of AEO before your competitors ever learn about it, our team can ensure that your online presence is fully optimized for AI search.
Contact Alpha Social Media today to get started with a free consultation, and let’s make AI your business’s biggest advocate!
